When Africans speak out, are their govts listening?
AFRICAN citizens are raising their voices. In just the past three months, protesters have taken to the streets to demand democracy in eSwatini and to show their opposition to anti-democratic power grabs in Tunisia and Sudan.
Since April 2017, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has recorded more than 70 episodes in 35 African countries of protests focused on issues ranging from police brutality and presidential third-term attempts to COVID-19 restrictions.
Citizen participation and government responsiveness are cornerstones of democracy. In the first instalment in this Afrobarometer series in anticipation of the Biden administration’s December 9-10 Summit for Democracy, we reported that African citizens are committed to democracy — even if they aren’t getting as much of it as they want.
In this final instalment, we focus on citizen voice: How, and how much, do citizens express their preferences, evaluations, and aspirations? And are their governments listening?
These findings draw on 45 832 face-to-face interviews in 34 countries during Afrobarometer Round 7 (2016 to 2018), which included a special set of questions on these topics.
The data reveals that Africans invest considerable effort in making themselves heard. But their governments are not always listening or responding.
In fact, sometimes governments suppress citizen action. Yet the findings suggest that a more responsive approach could yield greater participation and greater political satisfaction.
Africans are not keeping quiet Voting is the most obvious and popular way for citizens to express themselves, and Africans take advantage of this opportunity: 67% of respondents said they voted in their most recent national election.
But votes are blunt instruments for expressing preferences and complaints. Elections occur only occasionally, and they force individuals to compress a wide array of views into very few choices. How do Africans find their voice during the long intervals between elections?
Many invest in personal efforts to act as agents of change, whether in fighting corruption in the management of natural resources in Ghana or initiating awareness-raising and relief campaigns in response to COVID-19 in Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, and South Sudan.
Afrobarometer findings reveal substantial citizen engagement. Nearly half of survey participants (48%) say they “joined with others to raise an issue” at least once in the past year, and 34% contacted a political leader “about some important problem or to give them [their] views.”
Citizens also report taking direct action when they are dissatisfied with government performance. Nearly one in four (23%) report they “joined with others to request government action” over the past year, while 16% lodged a request for help or a complaint with a government official, 13% contacted the media, and 10% participated in a demonstration. Seven% said they refused to pay taxes or fees to the government.
But are governments listening?
These robust levels of citizen engagement suggest that people feel they can make a difference. But decision makers aren’t always receptive or responsive to citizen voices. Only 22% of survey respondents think local government councillors “often” or “always” listen “to what people like you have to say,” compared to 38% who say these elected officials never do.
The comparable percentages for Members of Parliament (MPs) are even worse (16 and 47%, respectively). Even in some of the continent’s most highly rated democracies, most citizens don’t feel heard: Just 12% in Cabo Verde and Mauritius, and 11% in Namibia, think their local elected leaders are listening.
Public officials who don’t understand or who disregard the accountability relationship between citizens and their government are also likely to prove unresponsive to the people’s concerns. For example, while a majority (57%) of survey respondents say they would probably get a response if they reported a problem such as teacher absenteeism at their local school, 36% think they would not. And fewer than half (43%) believe officials would take action if they reported corrupt behavior.
In fact, fully two-thirds (67%) say people “risk retaliation or other negative consequences” if they report incidents of corruption; just 29% think they can make such a report without fear. Majorities in 33 of 34 surveyed countries believe they would face retaliation, including more than eight in 10 citizens in Gabon (88%), eSwatini (82%), and Malawi (81%).
The implications of (not) listening
Lack of government responsiveness and respect for popular voices may have direct implications for both citizen engagement and citizen satisfaction.
For example, we find that individuals are more likely to contact leaders or take other individual or collective actions to solve problems if they believe a) that government officials respect and listen to them, b) that they will get a response if they raise an issue, and c) that they do not need to fear retaliation. In our findings, almost all of these interactions show modest, but statistically significant positive correlations.
● Read full article on www.newsday.co.zw
● This article was originally published on the Washington Post Monkey Cage blog
● Carolyn Logan (@carolynjlogan) is director of analysis for Afrobarometer and associate professor in the department of political science at Michigan State University, Joseph Asunka (@joeasunka) is chief executive officer of Afrobarometer, while Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi (@ gyimahboadi) is board chair of Afrobarometer.